KINGSTON – A group of seven residents of the City of Kingston has filed a lawsuit against Mayor Steven Noble challenging his signing of a deed on December 15, 2021, despite a Supreme Court justice ruling that the mayor had no authority to do so.
The deed signed by the mayor conveyed two easements intended to facilitate the construction of the Kingstonian project along the northern edge of the Kingston Stockade District.
That included an easement allowing the Kingstonian to be built over and on land currently occupied by Fair Street Extension and to erect a bridge over and in the median of Schwenk Drive to connect the project to the Kingston Plaza, owned by Kingstonian investor Brad Jordan, who is also a sitting public official.
“It is absolutely galling that Mayor Noble, after all the public outcry and all the litigation that has accompanied this private luxury housing development, would defy a court order and convey away the public’s right to use their own street. It’s really shameful,” said lead plaintiff James Shaughnessy, who brought the case in his personal capacity, although he also serves as president of the Kingston City School Board.
While the lawsuit focuses on the grounds that the deeding of Fair Street Extension to the developers of the Kingstonian was an unlawful act by the mayor with authority he did not have, the plaintiffs also challenge whether the common council had the power to abandon the street, whether the proper legal processes to do so were followed, and whether the mayor could ever be lawfully authorized to make such a conveyance.
